Best Northern Lights in 50 Years Predicted for 2012 to 2014

Photo by nb_harstad

If you’ve been contemplating an aurora-borealis-viewing vacation, now may be the best time in five decades to book it.

We’re coming up on what is known as a solar maximum, a period of peak solar activity, which occurs in 9- to 14-year cycles. The northern lights result from gas particles from the sun reaching the earth’s atmosphere.

NASA predicts that this solar maximum will be up to 50% stronger than the last cycle in 2000, and stronger than any solar activity since 1958, when the aurora was visible as far south as Mexico.